And now for today's thought...

The following is the Oath of Office required to be President of the United States.

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

The following is the 4th Amendment to the United States Constitution.

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

And just for good measure, the 5th Amendment to the same document.

"No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."

Now, I am not going to go into whether or not Jose Padilla is guilty or innocent of the dirty bomb thing he's accused of. What I am going to discuss is this.

George W. Bush has violated his Oath of Office.

That's a pretty strong statement to make but, What is absolutely clear is that Mr. Padilla or whatever he feels like calling himself these days has been in holding since May 8, 2002, without being charged with anything, and in fact moved from civilian custody to military custody to block any access to him.

Now I don't know the specifics of the case against him, and neither does anyone else apparantly because he's been held all this time as an "enemy combatant." Basically he's being accused of being a traitor. Fine. We know how to deal with traitors in this country. When they are found guilty they are taken out and "hanged by the neck until dead." (Not that I'm any great fan of capital punishment either, but that's not this argument.)

By the actions of Mr. Bush, he is not preserving, protecting or defending the Constitution, his actions in this case are in direct opposition to that. The Constitution has some very specific rules in it, and you will also note it does not say "citizen," it says "person." What that means is it doesn't even matter if you ARE a citizen.

The very thing that separates the United States, and what is the reason this IS a great country is that it is not supposed to matter who you are or where you are from, the rules apply to everyone equally. The current administration seems to be opposed to that idea and has not lived up to the oaths taken when they assumed office.

I am not going to say those are not some big shoes to fill, but it is obvious that the current bearer of them is not even trying to wear them. If you would like grounds for impeachment there they are. Even if you would not like them, how do you refute them?

postscript: Before someone brings up Japanese internment in World War II, the only analogous case to this, it was done in a state of declared war (which must be done by an act of Congress, Article I, Section 8 of the US Constitution) and later, the families of those people were given an apology and restitution, again by act of Congress, for that abrogation of their rights. Japanese internment is considered one of the blackest marks in the history of this country.

] served four years of active duty and another four years
] in the reserves, a commitment he believed expired Dec.
] 19. The Army maintains he will be in a voluntary reserve
] status until he's 50.

So now they're looking around for legal loopholes to suck people back in to send to (thank you Daily Show for this one) Mess-O'Potamia?

Reservist Sues to Avoid Recall

] The Pentagon says military records related to President
] Bush's service in the National Guard more than 30 years
] ago were inadvertently destroyed,

Whoops. Well he hasn't really shown up for work since he was appointed President, Cheney's actually been running things and Bush has been the Vice-Presidential Spokesman, so I guess he's consistant at least?

Did Bush Show Up?

] The court refused to endorse a central claim of the White
] House since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001: that
] the government has authority to seize and detain terror
] suspects or their protectors and indefinitely deny access
] to courts or lawyers while interrogating them.

Good. For a country purportedly fighting for "the rule of law" we've been doing a pretty crappy job about even bothering to follow our own.

Yahoo! News - Enemy Combatants Win Right to U.S. Courts

That's when Cheney unloaded with the "F-bomb,"

Way to go, dick.

"a 2002 order signed by Bush says the president reserves the right to suspend the Geneva Conventions on treatment of prisoners of war at any time."

So is Bush the second coming of Franz von Papen, a "leader" so inept that his underlings could get him to authorize anything or is he managing to rank right up there with Saddam Hussein, the guy we needed to "regime change?"

El Presidente Shrub Says 'Geneva Bad! Torture Good!'

] The Bush administration is spending $18 million on a new
] round of taxpayer-funded television advertising to
] promote the Medicare discount drug card, the Medicare
] administrator said Tuesday.

So id this an $18 million dollar ad to try to get people to vote for the shrubbery or is it $18 million dollars that could be spent on something practical, like maybe a medicare system that doesn't suck?

And oh yeah... this is the benefit plan that it was said would "only" cost $400 billion, whenthey hid numbers saying $500+ billion, and it is only covering about 7 million out of 41 million people eligible?

Wait... does that mean if everyone signs up it costs $3 trillion???

Yahoo! News - White House Spends $18M on Medicare Ad

On May 1st of last year our fearless leader declared we had seen the end of major hostilities in Iraq. I guess the Mission Accomplished referred to in the background of the photo here was to get us suckered into a guerilla campaign that would cause us to lose all credibility everywhere in the world.

"Hey! We'll send in troops!"
"Yeah, and we'll kick your asses just like the Iraqi's."
(World gives US the finger)

Just a reminder...

It's nice to see that it's not just now that the government is lying to cover itself.

] Brown felt shocked by the role of the government
] attorneys back then, particularly the solicitor general.
] Brown couldn't believe that this man would stand
] flat-footed before the Supreme Court and say the
] documents contained national security secrets. The
] solicitor general had only his integrity. How could he
] relinquish that?

Yahoo! News - A Daughter Discovers What Really Happened

] President Bush "was like a blind man in a roomful of deaf
] people" during Cabinet meetings, his former Treasury
] secretary, Paul O'Neill, told CBS News' "60 Minutes" in
] what the network said was his first interview about his
] work for the administration.

Lets start confirming some of Nick's worst fears!

] Describing his first such meeting with Bush, O'Neill said,
] "I went in with a long list of things to talk about and, I
] thought, to engage [him] on. ... I was surprised it turned
] out me talking and the president just listening. ... It was
] mostly a monologue."

He was thinking. I wonder what's for dinner? The economy.. Yummy. The economy is good for my teeth. Chomp Chomp..

] White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan dismissed
] the characterization of Bush's style. "It's well known the
] way the president approaches governing and setting
] priorities," he told reporters. "The president is someone
] that leads and acts decisively on our biggest priorities,
] and that is exactly what he'll continue to do."

Its well known? We don't know shit about this administration that they have not wanted us to know, aside from when someone comes out and says "he is really an idiot." That remains very scary and occurs regularly.

It's all part of his strategery!

CNN.com - O'Neill: Bush 'like a blind man' - Jan. 9, 2004